


Put a (Paper) Ring On It

by Kika988



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Fake/Pretend Relationship, First Kiss, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, M/M, Miscommunication, Mutual Pining, Pining, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:48:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22166704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kika988/pseuds/Kika988
Summary: Due to a series of regrettable alcohol-fueled decisions, everyone thinks Ryan and Shane are engaged - so they decide to just go with it and let the hype die down. After all, they're best friends, so it should be easy, right?
Relationships: Ryan Bergara/Shane Madej
Comments: 25
Kudos: 303
Collections: Shyan Secret Santa 2019





	Put a (Paper) Ring On It

**Author's Note:**

  * For [commoncookie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/commoncookie/gifts).

> Hi! I'm here with my first real Shyan fic as a pinch-hitter for the Shyan Secret Santa Exchange! I hadn't planned on participating, but I couldn't resist when I saw this prompt list -- we love all of the same things! 
> 
> To my giftee, I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Ryan groans, his arm coming up to cover his eyes as he fights a rising wave of nausea.

"Tell me about it," says a gravelly voice to his right. It's not quite _expected_, but it's also hardly the first time he's crashed with Shane after a long night of drinking, so his presence is hardly a surprise.

"Don't… noise," Ryan manages to croak. A few seconds later, he grunts in surprise as something cold pokes his shoulder. 

"Drink," Shane says when Ryan doesn't move to investigate the prodding. "It'll help."

Half a bottle of water later, and Ryan's piercing headache isn't much improved, but his nausea has somewhat abated and his mouth feels a little less sandy. 

"We're getting too old for this shit," Ryan says, passing the bottle back over to Shane, who takes a long drink from it before replying.

"I've _been_ too old for this shit," he says wryly.

"Says the one who suggested the switch to tequila," Ryan grumbles. He rubs a hand through his hair and grimaces. "Mind if I borrow your shower?" Shane waves a hand vaguely in the direction of the bathroom without opening his eyes, and Ryan rolls out of the bed and stumbles to the door.

The shower helps him feel a little more human, and by the time he emerges the smell of coffee fills the apartment. Shane's in the kitchen, leaning up against the counter by the sink. His hair is tousled and his feet are bare and something about the quiet domesticity of the scene makes Ryan smile in spite of his hangover.

Shane is uncharacteristically quiet as Ryan pours his coffee, barely looking up from his phone until Ryan reaches for his own. 

"Uh," Shane starts. "You might want to have some of that coffee first." 

Ryan frowns, the warning only causing him to unlock his phone faster. "What the fuck, dude, that's—"

"A lot of notifications, I know."

"And a ton of missed calls, from my brother and my mom. What the hell happened?"

Shane's response is to slide his own phone across the counter, Ryan's instagram page open on the screen. He starts the video on the most recent post with a tap, and the tinny audio of Ryan's own warbly-drunk voice fills the room.

"He popped the question! Finally!" Ryan watches in shock as on the screen, a grainy version of himself drags Shane in closer and presses a sloppy kiss to a stubbly cheek. "We're gettin' hitched! Yeah!" There's one last victorious whoop before the video cuts off. The post has 500,000 likes and counting, and several thousand comments, which continue to pour in as he watches — what appears to be an equal blend of _congratulations!_ and _I knew it!_.

Ryan sits down hard on the barstool, blindly accepting the coffee mug Shane nudges toward him. He remembers the night before in a blur of drinks and laughter, but he only vaguely recalls the joke that turned into Shane dramatically going down on one knee with a rolled-up straw wrapper as a ring.

He remembers his heart thudding oddly in his chest at the sight of it, and purposefully pushes that memory away, because he has _enough_ to deal with right now, thankyouverymuch.

"See, I knew the tequila was a bad idea," Ryan sighs, taking a gulp of his coffee before continuing. "Guess I better break the news it was all a joke, huh?" 

"I think it might be a little out of our hands at this point," Shane says. "My inbox is full of media requests, but they didn't bother waiting on statements from us before writing articles. It's kind of, uh. Everywhere." 

Ryan groans, letting his head fall to the counter. "What do we do? If it's already spread that far, trying to take it back will look bad."

"Yeah, I know," Shane agrees. "Besides, it's not like you were lying — I _did_ pop the question." Ryan raises his head just enough to glare across the counter at Shane, who shrugs innocently. "I'm just saying, we could just… go with it for now. Let it all die down and then call it off later."

Ryan stares across at him. "You're saying we should pretend to be engaged. Like, for real." He shakes his head. "People will see through that, dude."

"Will they?" Shane raises his eyebrows. "Half the comments are people yelling about how they saw this coming a mile away. We don't even have to do anything different. We're already together most of the time, anyway — people will fill in the blanks on the rest."

Ryan frowns down at his coffee. It feels… not wrong, exactly, but _dangerous_. He may not have openly admitted it to himself yet, but he knows full well that he has feelings for Shane, and pretending like this is bound to hurt a little. Shane's right, though — it's probably the easiest way to extricate themselves from this situation, and he's an adult. He knows the difference between reality and pretend.

"Alright," he agrees, shrugging. "Sounds easy enough."

* * *

They've been engaged for two days the first time they hold hands. 

"What?" Shane says to Ryan's surprised look. "Thought it'd sell things a little more. Too much?" 

"No," Ryan replies, perhaps a little too quickly. Shane's hand is big and warm against his own, and he likes it more than he would have expected. "It's fine." He squeezes Shane's fingers in reassurance, and can't help but smile at how Shane's eyes crinkle in response.

And so they walk into the studio hand-in-hand to scattered applause and a number of hugs and claps on the back. 

"You guys weren't subtle at _all_, for the record," Andrew says, grinning. "The way you're attached at the hip and always _looking_ at each other?"

Ryan flounders at that, but Shane steps in smoothly, draping an arm around Ryan's shoulders. "Yeah, well, can you blame me? He's nice to look at."

And, well, Ryan can feel himself flushing all the way to the tips of his ears at that, but two can certainly play that game. He wraps an arm around Shane's waist, drawing him in closer.

"Glad you think so, since now you're stuck looking at me forever," he says, grinning up at him. If Shane notices his smile being a little strained around the edges, he doesn't mention it.

Andrew rolls his eyes. "Gross. Congrats, but gross." He pauses, his eyes narrowing. "Think we can get any content out of—"

"No," Ryan and Shane reply simultaneously. 

"Fine, fine," Andrew says, holding his hands up in surrender. "Just thought I'd ask."

It's not until Andrew's excused himself to go get some work done that Ryan realizes they're still wrapped around each other, and neither seems to be in a hurry to let go.

* * *

Over the next couple of weeks, not much changes, even as Ryan's entire world seems to shift. He still spends most of his time with Shane, but there's more contact than before. It's nothing major — just a hand on his back, leaning against each other, occasionally holding hands — but it's enough of a difference to snag in Ryan's brain. At first he overthinks each touch, but by a few days in he thinks nothing of reaching out to take Shane's hand. It's nice. 

He also spends more time at Shane's place, partially to avoid all the questions from Ryan's roommates and partially to keep up the charade. They make dinner together, watch TV together, go to bed together. Ryan offers to sleep on the couch, but Shane scoffs and points out it's not like they haven't shared before. 

It's true, sure, but that had been before Ryan was practically _buzzing_ with all the extra touches, all those fond looks. 

_Feigned_ fond looks, as he reminds himself at every turn. It's all fake. Just like they planned. 

_Fake_, he reminds himself at the soft looks Shane gives him when they wake. 

_Not real_, he chants mentally as Shane sleepily nuzzles into his hair early one morning.

_Pretend_, he thinks, a bit desperately, when Shane presses a quick kiss to his mouth almost absently before leaving the office early one day.

It's the kiss that does it — he's in too deep, he realizes, and needs to take a step back. He goes along with everything fine when they're at work or out and about, but once they're at Shane's he starts pulling away. Nothing terrible; they're still friends, after all. He just maintains a little more distance. He sits a little farther away on the couch, is careful not to let their fingers touch as he passes a dinner plate over, sticks to his edge of the bed a little more closely. 

It goes on for three days before Shane brings it up. 

"Hey, uh. Have I been pushing too much?"

Ryan looks over at him — they're on the couch, a careful six-to-eight inches between them. "What?"

Shane turns to face him a little more, pulling one long leg partially up onto the couch as he gestures to the space between them. "You know. The couple-y stuff. You've been a little weird the past few days, so I assume I made you uncomfortable."

"No," Ryan says instantly. "No, dude, you're fine. Seriously." 

Shane raises his eyebrows, looking pointedly down at the space between them. "Guess I just need to shower more often, then," he says lightly.

Ryan sighs. "You didn't do anything," he promises. "It wasn't the, you know, touching or whatever. Just the pretending. I don't like lying." It's not the entire truth, but close enough. He can hardly tell Shane _I keep wishing this were real and it's killing me that it isn't_, anyway.

Shane nods slowly. "Okay. Well, things have calmed down a little, right? We can probably go ahead and call it off."

It's been the plan all along, of course, but that doesn't stop the sinking feeling in Ryan's belly. 

"Yeah," he says, pausing to clear his throat when the word comes out a little wobbly. "Yeah, you're right. Should be fine to do it now."

Shane looks at him a long moment, but nods. "Two weeks is practically an age in internet time. Everyone's probably forgotten all about it. We don't even need to post anything about it, just go back to normal and play it off as old news if anyone brings it up."

"One amicable breakup, coming right up," Ryan quips, steadfastly ignoring how the words ring hollow in his own ears.

* * *

_**Boogarrrrra563:** Did this ep feel off to anyone else? The boys seemed weird._

_**MadejkMe:** Def weird. Maybe they had a fight?_

_**2spoopy4u:** Ryan barely looked at Shane the whole time. None of those heart eyes we're used to._

_**Boogarrrrra563:** Ugh, I was hoping I was imagining things. I hope it's nothing serious._

_**Sh1tf1sh:** Mixing work and relationships never ends well. This show is on borrowed time, folks._

_**2spoopy4u:** No way!! They'll be fine._

_**Boogarrrrra563:** I hope you're right. I'd miss the show, but I think I'd miss them just being goofy with each other even more._

* * *

The thing is, it _feels_ like a real breakup.

Ryan knows that's ridiculous, knows it was all fake and that he and Shane are still friends, but he goes from two weeks of casual physical affection and time spent at Shane's place to strained smiles and evenings alone in his room.

They still spend hours together at work every day, but somehow Ryan still misses him. There's a careful distance between them that's never been there before, and he hates it.

It lasts for a little over a week before Shane corners him in the breakroom. 

"We gotta fix this," he says bluntly. 

Ryan cringes. "Yeah, I saw some of the comments on—"

"Forget the comments, Ryan," Shane says, scowling. "Let them say what they want. But this—" He pauses to gesture between the two of them, "has gotten weird and we need to figure it out." He hesitates, pausing a moment, then adds, quietly, "I miss you, man." 

And Ryan was never going to be able to say no to _that_. "I'll come over tonight," he offers. "We can talk, or something."

"Or something," Shane echoes, smiling and shaking his head. "Yeah, okay. That works. You get the pizza, I'll get the beer."

* * *

When Ryan shows up at Shane's door with a couple of pizza boxes, for a little while it's almost like nothing has changed, like they've rolled back time to a month ago before everything got complicated. They bicker over the beer selection, somehow segue into debating about Star Wars, and then veer briefly into sports thanks to an analogy Ryan tries that goes completely over Shane's head. 

It's nice. Ryan still misses the little touches, the ease with which they'd fallen into each other for a little while, misses knowing he'd be sleeping next to Shane's warmth, but this is _nice_. It's good. He can get used to this again.

When Shane's done eating, he sets his plate aside and clears his throat, and Ryan stiffens — he knows that look. That's Shane's Emotional Honesty look. He'd hoped tonight would just be Generic Male Bonding, getting their groove back, and ignoring everything that'd happened, but apparently he has no such luck. 

"I need to apologize," Shane says. "I shouldn't have pushed you to pretend we were together. It obviously made you uncomfortable and I should have realized that. I'm sorry." It sounds rehearsed, but sincere. 

It still ticks Ryan off. 

"Dude, I'm the one that made the post to begin with," he points out. "If anyone should be apologizing, it's me. You didn't _push_ anything, and you definitely didn't make me uncomfortable, so stop trying to be some sort of…" He trails off, gesturing angrily. "Friendship martyr, or whatever."

"Friendship martyr?" Shane says, raising his eyebrows. "Look, I obviously did _something_ to make you uncomfortable around me, because you've barely looked me in the eyes for two weeks. I can apologize for that much, at least." 

"No, you can't," Ryan retorts. "You didn't _do_ anything, Shane."

"Then why have you been avoiding me?" Shane demands. "You just spent too much time here and got tired of me? Needed a break?" 

"No, I spent too much time here _wishing it didn't have to end_," Ryan snaps without thinking. As soon as the words escape him, his eyes widen and his mouth snaps shut. 

They stare at each other in silence for a long moment, Shane's expression slowly changing from shocked to considering. 

"You… wanted to keep pretending?" Shane asks slowly. 

Ryan swallows hard, but it's too late to back out now. "No. I wanted it to be real."

"Okay." Shane's response is instantaneous and so unexpected it takes Ryan a few seconds to process it. 

"What?"

"I said okay," Shane repeats. When Ryan only continues to stare at him, Shane shrugs a little. "I may have had some… ulterior motives when I suggested we pretend for a little bit," he admits. 

"You _like_ me?" Ryan demands. 

"Oh, are we back in grade school now?" Shane retorts, scoffing. "Should I check yes or no?"

"_Shane._"

"Yes! Yes, I want to take you out to dinner and curl up with you on the couch and share a bed with you — and yeah, do other things in that bed, don't give me that look — and kiss you and be generally mushy and in love and every bit as gross as Andrew already thinks we are."

Ryan can't imagine what his face must be doing right now, and he certainly can't formulate any sort of intelligent response to that beyond, "Good!" 

"Good!"

And then Ryan has no clue who moved first, but they're kissing — _actually_ kissing, no quick peck — and it's _amazing_. Shane's got one hand cupped around Ryan's jaw and Ryan's fingers are buried in Shane's hair and Shane's lips are soft and warm and insistent and Ryan's pretty sure he could happily stay here forever. 

They start to pull apart a couple of times, but each time they only take the space of a breath before one of them is moving in again for another kiss. At some point Shane starts kissing his way down Ryan's jaw, and only then does Ryan realize he's somehow ended up halfway in Shane's lap.

"Wait," Ryan says suddenly. "We weren't just pretending to date, we were pretending to be _engaged_."

"Mhmm," Shane agrees, not even bothering to pull away from where he's mouthing at Ryan's neck. Ryan shivers a little, but tugs on Shane's hair to get his attention. Shane makes a noise that sounds something like a whine, and oh, they're going to have to investigate _that_ later. 

"Does this mean we're for-real engaged now?" That finally seems to get Shane's attention, and he pulls away far enough to look at Ryan. 

"If you want to be," he says easily. 

"We haven't even been on a date," Ryan points out. He feels like he has to say it, but he also knows it doesn't matter, not really. They've been close for long enough to know how well they work together.

"We haven't," Shane agrees.

"And you proposed with a straw wrapper."

"I did. And you said yes."

"While drunk off my ass," Ryan points out, "but I stand by my yes if you stand by your question." 

"Good," Shane says, beaming. "Can I go back to kissing you now?" 

Ryan laughs and moves to stand, savoring Shane's small noise of protest as he pulls away. 

"Come on, big guy — get me back to the bedroom and you can do a hell of a lot more than kiss me."

**Author's Note:**

> Come find me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/kika988_)!


End file.
